Obama calls on Britain to remain in the EU

In an interview on the BBC, US President Barack Obama urged Britain to stay in the EU, as well as stating that lack of gun control in the US was his 'greatest' frustration.

24.07.2015

(AFP) US President Barack Obama has urged Britain to stay in the European
Union, cautioning remaining in the bloc was necessary to help preserve
the nation's global influence.

Obama's comments, during an interview with the BBC aired on
Thursday, come ahead of a planned British referendum that will determine
whether the country remains in the EU.

"Having the UK in the European Union gives us much greater confidence
about the strength of the transatlantic union," Obama said.

"We want to make sure that the United Kingdom continues to have that influence."

Obama went on to refer to the EU as a "cornerstone of institutions
built after World War II" that has helped make the global community
"safer and more prosperous".

Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to
hold a referendum on the country's EU membership by the end of 2017.

The vote, which is going ahead after Cameron's centre-right
Conservatives won a clear majority during general election held in May,
is scheduled to take place sometime before 2017 but could come as early
as next year.

Cameron is negotiating with Europen Union leaders to try to change
the terms of Britain's membership of the bloc before holding the
referendum.

Last month, Cameron told reporters at the G7 summit in Germany his
goal was to "renegotiate, get a deal that's in Britain's interest and
then recommend Britain stays in it".

The EU has been rocked in recent weeks by contentious negotiations
between Greece and international creditors to secure a third bailout for
the nation and prevent the country from exiting the union.

Full BBC interview in video below....

Lack of US gun control Obama's 'greatest' frustration

Obama said during the BBC interview that there a "distressing" lack of
progress on gun control legislation had been the greatest source of
frustration during his time in office.

His comments came just hours before a gunman opened fire in a movie
theater in the state of Louisiana, shooting dead two people before
killing himself.

Obama stated the issue he felt "most
frustrated and most stymied" by was legislators' inability to push
through limitations on access to arms, despite repeated massacres during
his tenure.

Obama said his country was "the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws."

He contrasted the numbers killed in terrorist attacks since 9/11 with
near-routine killings by domestic shooters, highlighting a huge
discrepancy in the figures.

"If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by
terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been
killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands," he said.

"And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something
that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop
working on in the remaining 18 months (of his presidency)."

Under the US Constitution, every American is entitled "to keep and
bear arms" -- a tenet jealously guarded by millions of law-abiding gun
owners as a symbol of liberty and a foil against tyrannical government.

The Newtown, Connecticut shooting that left 20 children dead in
December 2012 spurred Obama to demand tighter controls on the sale of
military-style assault rifles like the one used by 20-year-old shooter
Adam Lanza.

But the political clout of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and
the gun industry on Capitol Hill meant that legislation to mandate
background checks for all gun sales -- not just those at federally
licensed gun shops -- never cleared the Senate.

Mass killings -- defined by the FBI as those with at least four
victims -- account for only about one percent of all murders in the
United States, according to an analysis of FBI data by the newspaper USA
Today.

But they nevertheless occur about every two weeks.

James Holmes, 27, the neuroscience student who killed 12 people and
wounded 70 others during a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises"
in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012, was convicted last week of the
crimes.

And last month 21-year-old Dylann Roof was charged with the June 17
massacre of nine black Christians during evening Bible study at the
historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South
Carolina.

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